Update from the District Commander at Hampshire Constabulary

Chief Inspector Marcus Cator, the District Commander for Eastleigh, joined our June Parish Council meeting. Marcus has been in post for 12 months, and he’s particularly keen to build on existing community links to develop new ways for Hampshire Constabulary to connect with residents of Hamble and the surrounding areas.

To build better engagement with community, they are:

• Increasing staff levels: over the last 12 months, they have recruited more officers from an initial low base. We’re seeing the benefit with more regular patrols since these new officers have completed their intensive training and induction
• Building community links to better communicate with local residents - check out Hedge End Police
• Updating the public on current priorities and initiatives through their regular newsletter - Policing Eastleigh - June 2021
• Introducing new community-based ‘scrutiny groups’ who will provide local insight and help keep the police accountable.

What are the Police doing to manage anti-social behaviour in Hamble?

Work on Operation Aquatics for Hamble Foreshore has been running since November 2020. It includes a dedicated officer and involves: Hampshire Police, Marine Police, Eastleigh Borough Council, Hamble River Harbour Authority and Hamble Parish Council.

Following the Operation, the team has taken proactive measures to address anti-social behaviour, including:

• Increasing conversations with young people
• Increasing police presence and patrols during high-risk times (high tides/high temperatures)
• Improving signs and warnings at the foreshore
• Stationing ‘high-vis’ vehicles to act as a deterrent
• Working from Hamble Lifeboat station as a touch down base when they are ‘on our patch’.

They are also addressing recent issues of large numbers of young people travelling by train to come into the village.

• This has been addressed by Hampshire Constabulary, the British Transport Police and Network Rail working together to ensure that trains no longer stop at Netley or Hamble when there is a known problem.

Building on these measures, Chief Inspector Cator was clear that engagement with young people is key to addressing the anti-social behaviour.

• One step in development is a focus on ‘Park Sport’ to provide different activities for young people at locations where anti-social behaviour is reported.

What can the Parish Council and the community do to help?

The Chief Inspector is working with Hamble, other Parish Councils and Police agencies to support the community. He is strongly encouraging residents to report all incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour.

• Currently, incident reports for Hamble are low – on average, 20-30 reports per month (10-15 relate to anti-social behaviour).
• To put this in context, Eastleigh town can report up to 20-30 incidents per day. Resources will follow the areas with highest levels of reports – and the police rely on timely information from the community.

Chief Inspector Cator acknowledged the constraints and frustrations with the telephone 101 service, and that action has been taken to shorten call waiting times. He also encouraged residents to report online as alternative to 101.

What can you do?

Hamble residents are encouraged to either use 999 where a crime is taking place – including anti-social behaviour – or report online via: https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/

Here’s a shortcut to report anti-social behaviour:
https://www.hampshire.police.uk/ro/report/asb/asb/report-antisocial-behaviour/

Please be aware that social media can be useful to useful tool to share information as a community, but it’s not a crime reporting tool for the Police. Police agencies can only act on ‘hard facts and evidence’ that are reported directly to them.

We’re encouraging everyone to report more frequently when issues occur in the community. We are working hard to deal with antisocial behaviour in the village and this is an important step to help solve these issues together.